Uber agrees to settle case filed by Indian rape victim

Published On: 09, Dec 2017 | Source: Timesofindia

NEW DELHI/NEW YORK: Uber Technologies and an Indian woman who had accused its top executives of improperly obtaining her medical records after a company driver raped her have agreed to settle a civil US lawsuit.

When contacted, Uber confirmed the filing which says a settlement has been reached between all defendants and Uber expects the case to be dismissed in January. Terms of the settlement were, however, not disclosed.

In 2014, the Indian woman was raped by an Uber driver in New Delhi. She had filed a lawsuit earlier and later "voluntarily" withdrew it.

In June this year, she filed another case against the ride-hailing company and its embattled CEO Travis Kalanick for "unlawfully" obtaining her medical records and engaging in offensive conspiracy theories about the brutal incident.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in the 18-page lawsuit filed in the federal court in California, said Uber has taken startup culture, in which "fierceness" and "always be hustling" are prioritised above people to a new extreme, "perpetuating rape culture and violating all bounds of decency as to customer privacy".

Uber spent the early part of this year battling a number of issues, including widespread mismanagement and harassment at workplace.

Troubles started for Uber after a former employee wrote a blog post alleging sexual harassment and sexism at the firm. Matters came to a head when reports emerged that a top Uber executive had allegedly obtained medical records of the 26- year-old woman raped by an Uber driver in India in 2014.

Following these Uber co-founder and then CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down and in August, former Expedia chief Dara Khosrowshahi was brought in as the new chief executive.